empowerment provides where power blinds

In honor of Laissez Fair, I got to chat with Urban Outfitters, Space 24 Twenty about my art.

"Susannah's art is bright, colorful and eye catching; the kind of work that immediately transforms the aesthetic of a room. It's hard to believe the Austin native has only been showcasing her art publicly as of recently (including West Elm, Madewell, and Urban Outfitters this coming Sunday,) after nearly a decade of refining her craft.

In preparation of our Laissez Fair Market this weekend where Susannah will be selling a handful of pieces, we visited her at her quaint little studio in East Austin.

Learn more about this emerging Austin artist below and if you can't make it on Sunday, check out Susannah's website and Instagram for available prints.

Tell us about yourself… how long have you been painting?

Hmm, I've painted for about ten years now, but not until the last year have I been public about my work. Until now it's been privy to the walls of my home and that's about it.

I became fascinated with oil sticks a while back, they are everything you want finger painting with pastels or crayons to be. You can draw with them like pastels but also blend and shade and create different textures depending on how much you add. In high school for an AP project I made large scale self portraits in different mediums. I just kind of started and couldn't stop. I think my parents still have three or four large five foot giant faces in random closets at their house."

This weekend is Laissez Fair Vintage Mini Market and I'll have my art on display in the lounge. This is the second market Passport Vintage, Dive Vintage and Pieceology Vintage have hosted and the first one was a blast!

The mini market is taking place inside the former Mellow Mushroom on Guadalupe. The event is free and there is THE best vintage in town all under one roof!

I'm super excited to be the Local Artist in Residence at West Elm here in Austin! My artwork will be on display through the month of August. Go check out my latest collection and if you see anything you like, send me an email!

Help celebrate the launch of my website with sips, sweets and shopping! I'm so excited to be co-hosting this summer pop up with Madewell. There will be clothing discounts, art giveaways and more! I hope to see your friendly faces.

I'm going to Nice, France in September and top of my list is to visit the Matisse museum. His use of bold colors is so out of my comfort zone, but something I strive for. The way he depicts the female form is so unapologetic and absolute; I want to be one of the women dancing in Dance.

On my last visit to Detroit we went to John K. King's Used & Rare Book shop and I left with a copy of "Henri Matisse Paper Cut-Outs" which is inspiring a new collection of prints.

I'm always looking to the masters for inspiration and work study. Working with different color palettes and forms is a way of experimenting. Currently, I'm obsessing over the palettes of Georgia O'Keeffe.

Often referred to as a foremother of the feminist art movement, O'Keeffe is known for her bold flowers and colorful landscapes. One of my favorite quotes of O'Keeffe when faced with failing eyesight due to macular degeneration is:

“I can see what I want to paint. The thing that makes you want to create is still there.”

All-in-all she was super talented, total bad ass and was using millennial pink before it was a thing, aka total trendsetter.

I'll be a vendor at the first annual Marmalade Market and I'm super excited! You'll find all female vendors, performers celebrating intersectional feminism. All ticket sales benefit Planned Parenthood, so come out for a good cause! Check out more about Marmalade Market online.

Persian New Year, also called Norooz, occurs each spring, usually on March 20th or 21st depending on when the sun crosses the celestial equator from Southern to Northern hemispheres. It is largely a secular celebration in Western and Central Asian, the Caucuses and the Balkans and is imbued with food traditions, rituals, and symbols that invite celebrants to leave behind the past year and look forward with optimism toward the new year.

To share more about Norooz celebrations, I sat down with my sister Ariana Shabro to chat about this tradition.

What do you consider the core/universal traditions of Norooz?

Setting a Haft-Seen table filled with traditional items that invite good things in the new year is a particularly important part of how families continue the Norooz tradition and it is quite universal as well. Haft-Seen translates to “seven S’s”, so the table is laid with seven items beginning with the letter S. The items on the haft seen should be displayed on a special cloth called a sofreh. My sofreh was given to me as a wedding gift from my mother-in-law. It is made of deep burgundy silk which she and my sister-in-law hand embroidered in gold and silver threads. Taking a picture in front of each haft seen is also customary and creates a sweet archive of a family’s annual celebration.

On the Haft-Seen table pictured here we have:

Sabzeh, usually wheat grass or lentil beans, representing re-birth

Seer, garlic representing health

Seeb, apple representing beauty

Somāq, sumac representing sunrise

Serkeh, vinegar representing patience and old age

Other rituals include cleaning the home, purchasing new clothing, and jumping over fire (or candles, as in our household) the week before Norooz, which represents leaving negative aspects of the previous year behind. Usually families begin sprouting wheatgrass in advance of Norooz to place on the Haft-Seen table as well.

Do you have favorite Norooz foods?

I love Ajeel which resembles trail mix with figs, apricots, roasted pistachios, among other things, as well as Ashe Reshteh, a delicious noodle soup with greens and whey.

Many people in the Persian Diaspora left Iran during political turmoil and moved to the West. How has this history impacted maintaining cultural traditions?

I think when people leave their country, especially under duress, finding others like them to celebrate the good times and positive parts of their culture becomes important. I can't say for sure if it's made Norooz or any other cultural traditions more important, since Norooz is already widely practiced. For all the Iranians I know, regardless of the circumstances of their leaving Iran, their religious background, or whether or not they have Persian community around them, they still maintain some aspects of a Norooz tradition. Every family and ethnic group have their own special additions or modifications, but Norooz is such an ancient and traditional time celebrated by people of all faiths so you will find similarities between the way it continues to be honored in Iran as in the diaspora.

What is one of your favorite Persian New Year memories?

One year I set out cheap candles on the apartment floor and invited a dear Iranian friend over for Norooz. We turned off all the lights off, jumped over them, and then he asked if he could kiss me. At the time I said no but he didn't hold it against me, we're now married! You could say it was the Norooz that started it all.

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Susannah and Ariana grew up in Austin with an Iranian father and American mother, and have maintained ties to their Persian roots through food, family, and celebrations. Their paternal family ensured that the sisters were raised in Iranian tradition, and Ariana is now married to an Iranian man and together they are raising a bilingual family that is deeply connected to Persian culture.